Monday, July 26, 2010

Bush’s Dishonest Tax Policies Come Back to Haunt Us

The front page of yesterday’s NYT ran a story about an ‘epic battle’ brewing over Bush’s temporary tax cuts. If you recall, the substantial tax cuts on income, dividends and capital gains that Bush introduced in 2001 and 2003 are due to expire by the end of this year.

It wasn’t too hard to see this fight coming. I for one was worried about Bush’s tax gimmickry from the beginning and questioned how easy it would be to allow these tax cuts to lapse. (see one of my past NYT column's for more) Now Bush’s temporary tax cuts are expected to take center stage in the political debate in the fall at a time when we can’t afford to be distracted by hoary old chestnuts like supply side economics and ‘the evils of big government.’ Instead, we need to focus on what matters most to our weak economy: allowing the government to spend on productive investments that will pay off for years.